Bad Ass Enough to Handle It!

I saw a post by The Primal Parent today on facebook that I genuinely loved:

"The hardest part about being Primal isn't the diet, but making your way in a non-Primal world. People don't understand. They don't agree. They won't listen. And they don't respect your choices. 

But that's alright. Another part of being Primal is being a bad ass that can handle it."

Can I say a million times how much I love Peggy? Love, love, love her! Beside my utter respect for that strong, smart, non ass-kissing woman she has a great point. They don't get it. You can spew facts and numbers at them. Explain that carbs and grain are actually killing them. Or go the more delicate route of explaining why you decided to make this change for yourself. The fact of the matter is most people won't understand. They don't agree because their knowledge of food and health is based on incredibly flawed conventional wisdom.

Primal is based of what our ancestors ate and what our bodies evolved to eat, but let's put all of the talk about evolution aside and get to the real issue. What people don't realized is that 80% of their body composition is made up by what they eat. First and foremost why on earth would someone want their body to be made up of pizza, hotdogs, pasta, french fries, candy, fast food, soda, and breakfast cereal? These types of food are a large part of the standard american diet (SAD). This standard diet wrecks havoc on your body! It's as simple as the following. When you eat this stuff it causes your pancreas to produce insulin and if you're eating this kind of stuff all day you likely have elevated levels of insulin running around in your blood at all times. This is called chronic hyperinsulinemia. Chronic hyperinsulinemia causes conditions such as general inflammation, obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and cancer. 

Most people will say they don't eat "that bad". Let's say for the sake of being short winded you only eat 3 meals a day while consuming the standard american diet (SAD). What do you have for breakfast while eating the SAD? Breakfast cereal? There's a shock to your insulin levels right there. Did you stop at Starbucks and get a latte this morning? There's more insulin from your sugary coffee. What's for lunch a turkey sandwich? There is a nice amount of carbohydrates in that bread to cause another insulin spike (even if it's wholegrain!). Don't tell me you had chips too. Then there is dinner, which for most Americans is the largest meal of the day. You decide to go with lasagna and garlic bread and for the sake of having a vegetable serving you throw some green beans on your plate. Your entire day has consisted of food that has kept your insulin levels high resulting in chronic hyperinsulinemia. Mark Sisson put it very well in The Primal Blueprint: "High insulin levels promote fat storage and disease. Moderate insulin levels (typical with Primal Blueprint eating) stimulate fat burning and good health."

It's as simple as that people. We do it to be healthier and happier. It's not about depriving ourselves, it's about caring what we do to our bodies. We want to feel good and live longer healthier lives. Why is that so hard to understand? And furthermore why do we get criticized for our choices? I guess all we can do is live like Grok and be bad ass enough to handle the naysayers. 

Grok on!

Primal Snacks

I've recently been thinking about primal snacks. My appetite has decreased over the past few weeks and I've been snacking more than eating complete meals. I also have a close friend that is thinking about making the switch to Primal. I figured I'd put together a little list of the easy to prepare snacks that I eat on a regular basis.

• Jerky (make your own)
• Celery and Sunbutter
• Hard Boiled Eggs
• Avocados
• Nuts and Seeds
• Pickles (one my favorite snacks!)
• Veggies (cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, mushrooms)
• Dark Chocolate
• Cottage Cheese
• Yogurt (full fat)
• Salad (throw some greens into a bowl with olive oil)
• Fruit, fresh or dried
• Cold Meatballs

Do you have suggestions or recipes you want to share? Post them in the comments.

Egg Muffins

I used a recipe I saw on pinterest for inspiration to make this amazingly simple breakfast.

Ingredients:
5 Slices of Bacon cooked
6 Eggs
Vegetables! Pick any kind of veggies you think would taste good in these muffins. I used mushrooms, zucchini, onion, and some garlic.

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Throw the cooked bacon in to the food processor and pulse until it's finely chopped. Of course you can use a knife for this, but using my food processor makes me happy! :) Do the same thing with your veggies. Add everything into a large bowl. Now crack the eggs into a separate bowl and whisk the yolks and egg whites together. Add the eggs to the veggie mixture and stir everything together.

At this point I felt like adding a little more fat so I poured in a bit of the grease that was left over from cooking the bacon. Of course you don't have to. Spoon the egg mixture into a greased (grease it good or they'll stick!) muffin pan. Don't fill them up completely or they will spill over the edges. Throw them in to oven for 20-25 minutes, or until the egg is set in the middle.

The recipe will make about 12-15 muffins depending on how many vegetables you add. I throw these in the fridge and heat two up every morning for breakfast. You can play around with adding different meat like sausage or beef instead. It's fast and so easy. 

Rising Cesarean Rate and Placenta Accreta

As many know the rate of C-sections is sky rocketing with as many as 1 in 3 women delivering their babies on the operating table, but what isn't being discussed are the many risks that accompany this majorly invasive surgery. 

ABC posted an article and news report in April of 2011 about a condition called placenta accreta.  It's a condition in which the placenta grows into the uterine wall and sometimes even beyond. This is a life threatening condition that can result in hemorrhage, often requires surgery to stop bleeding, and can also be fatal. The rates of occurrences are rising.  The article states:  Once a rare event that affected 1 in 30,000 pregnant women in the 1950s and 1960s, placenta accreta now affects 1 in 2,500 pregnancies, according to a 2007 report in the Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology. In some hospitals, the number is as high as 1 in 522.

Dr. Abdulla Al-Khan, director of the Division of Fetal Medicine and Surgery at Hackensack University Medical Center, said, "The rule of thumb is if you have one C-section and the placenta sits right on top of the scar, the risk of placenta accreta is 25 percent."

Cesarean sections can be life saving for mothers and babies when they are medically necessary, but this "to posh to push" mentality needs to be addressed. Read the entire article and watch the report here. You can also check the cesarean rates of your state and hospital at cesareanrates.com. Share this with the women in your life. Keep your self informed and educated!

Vitamins and Supplements

Last night I was reminded of something while talking with my sister in-law. Until recently I never really knew what vitamins and supplements I should take and which weren't really necessary. Over the past few months I have done some research to develop a supplement regimen.

I turned to several different articles including this one on primaltoad.com and this one by Mark Sisson. I also looked into what other moms were using such as Lucy Eades, one of my favorite natural mamas from youtube.com.

This is what I came up with. Daily I take 2 prenatal vitamins, 2 calcium and magnesium, 3 omega-3, and 1 vitamin D (living in the Pacific Northwest has its perks, the lack of sun isn't one of them). I take all of these through out the day with meals. Just in the last week I switched to using mostly Melaleuca supplements. It's possible that later down the road I may change this up, but for now it's working really well for me.

What vitamins and supplements do you take? Do you have any thoughts on what I'm currently supplementing?

Power outages, snow, and mayhem.

It started on the 14th of January and didn't stop until around the 19th. About 15 inches of snow later we were stuck at home with no power and no cell phone service (we don't have a land line either). I also didn't receive my absoultely necessary Full Circle produce delivery on Thursday morning because of the weather. It's safe to say eating Primal in an environment like that it near impossible! We had NO food! :( Good thing the in-laws live next door...

When all was said and done the snow melted away and I finally got my much needed produce delivery yesterday morning. Our snowed in week was just one more solid reason eating Primal has changed my outlook on food. I felt like crap eating what everyone else was eating. I was bloated constantly and even put on some weight. I'm happy to say as of yesterday morning things are back to normal. I got up early and made a scramble with red peppers, spinach, and bacon. After eating several bites I felt a bit nauseous. I can only attribute that to falling off the wagon this past week. You have no idea how glad I am to be back! :)

Primal Philly Cheese Steak Pizza

I found this incredible pizza crust recipe and knew I wanted to give it a try. I made the crust according to the recipe, but I put my own spin on the toppings and went with a philly cheese steak style.

Ingredients:
(I don't usually use exact measurements.)
one green bell pepper, diced
half on onion, diced
some steak, cut into tiny bite sized pieces
organic marinara sauce (I got mine at Trader Joe's)

Forgive the awful cell phone pictures. I couldn't find my camera.

I precooked these toppings by sauteing them in a pan together over high heat until the onion and peppers were slightly soft.

After taking the crust out of the oven I realized it was slightly over done around the edge, but the center was still a little soft. Next time I will probably bake it at 400 instead of 425 and watch it closely.

I slathered on a little marinara sauce, threw the toppings on, then a little mozzarella cheese. Then put it under the broiler for a minute or two to melt the cheese. This was agony for me because I could see the edges of the crust getting darker and darker, but I knew the cheese needed to be melted.

When all was said and done this pizza was yummy! The burnt edges were actually pretty tasty too. I'm looking forward to trying it again with different toppings.